The One Marvel Project That Ranks Higher Than All The Others On Rotten Tomatoes
The downside to the now-inoperative Marvel Television was that its offerings were exhaustively inconsistent in quality. Would you get a mature, nuanced examination of topics like systemic corruption, religious faith, and personal trauma like in "Daredevil"? Or would you get a clumsy mashup of "Succession"-style dynasty drama and white savior tropes like in "Iron Fist"? One could never be too sure. But while the lows were especially low (I'm pretty certain the world had collectively agreed to forget "Inhumans" ever happened, right up until Anson Mount's variant Black Bolt inexplicably popped up in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness"), the highs also tended to be higher than the Marvel Cinematic Universe's films.
Funnily enough, that trend has only continued since Marvel Television was restructured and folded into Marvel Studios. The MCU's Disney+ shows have been all over the board so far, with the added wrinkle that most of them are woven deeper into the tapestry of the franchise's greater mythology and, as such, are harder for the MCU's movies to ignore — as we saw when "The Marvels" had to pay off one of the worst parts of "Secret Invasion." On the flip side, that also means the films have some terrific characters and compelling stories just waiting to be tapped into, as "The Marvels" did when it brought over the wonderful Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) and her equally delightful family from "Ms. Marvel."
As fate would have it, "Secret Invasion" and "Ms. Marvel" themselves represent polar opposites of the MCU's Disney+ spectrum. Where the "Secret Invasion" finale is one of the worst-reviewed Marvel things ever (right up there with "Iron Fist" season 1 and the entirety of "Inhumans"), "Ms. Marvel" is actually the highest-ranked MCU project on Rotten Tomatoes.
All hail queen Kamala
Now, as is customary here at /Film, it's worth clarifying that the highest-ranked doesn't always equate to the highest-scored on RT. While "Ms. Marvel" has a 98% critics score (meaning, 98% of critics gave it a pass or "Fresh" on a pass-fail or Fresh-Rotten curve), its average review score was likely lower than that for the MCU's second highest-ranked project on Rotty T's, the Best Picture Oscar-nominated "Black Panther" (which holds a 96% among critics).
Even so, that means "Ms. Marvel" is still the most widely-liked MCU thing ever among critics ... and why wouldn't it be? Created by Bisha K. Ali and based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, "Ms. Marvel" is an infectiously charming high school coming-of-age/superhero adventure mashup that's anchored by a winsome cast and brings some much-needed stylistic flourishes to the MCU. Vellani delights as Kamala herself, an effervescent, adorkable teenage Avengers super-fan whose attempts to gain a better understanding of her newfound super-powers both interconnect and are effectively juxtaposed with her journey to learn more about her family's past. It's little wonder "The Marvels" is at its best when playing as a sequel to the show.
None of that is to suggest that "Ms. Marvel" is flawless. Certain episodes are stronger than others and the series loses some of its technical luster whenever Adil & Bilall ("Bad Boys for Life") aren't directing, but it's still easily one of the highlights of the post-Infinity Saga MCU and indicates there may yet be a future for this franchise so long as Kamala is leading the charge (and Iman Vellani is certainly up to keep Ms. Marvel going strong). Plus, the show did a better job of teaching U.S. viewers about the Partition of India than your average public high school world history class. Eat your heart out, Iron Man.